Brendan Rodgers takes Sir Alex Ferguson's road

BRENDAN RODGERS’ instinct was to shy away from drawing any comparisons.

Yet the more he talked yesterday, the more he merely succeeded in highlighting the parallels between the task confronting him at Liverpool and the job Sir Alex Ferguson, or plain old Alex as he was back then, first undertook along the East Lancs Road.

“I am my own man and when he [Ferguson] arrived at Manchester United he had been a manager for a long time and had won trophies and whatnot,” said Rodgers.

“I don’t think there are too many comparisons, other than when he entered there in 1986, he had a massive job to do.

“It was a failing school. He was having to pick it up from its knees, looking to put his stamp on it, looking to youth, to show no fear and then go from there.”

As a summation of the job Rodgers signed up for in the summer, it was almost word perfect.

I don’t think there are too many comparisons, other than when he entered there in 1986

Brendan Rodgers

Liverpool’s march to two cup finals last season, winning one trophy, may jar with the success-starved club Ferguson discovered. In terms of reclaiming a place at the summit of English football, the similarities are inescapable.

United had not lifted the championship in 19 years when Ferguson, then 44, took charge. Rodgers, 39, knows by the start of next season Anfield will have been without the prize it once considered its own for 23 consecutive years. He is too respectful – in public at least – to plagiarise and apply a twist to Ferguson’s avowed aim to “knock Liverpool off their perch”.

Ferguson wrote to Rodgers after he was sacked by Reading, offering his support as his coaching career endured a setback.

However, establishing a lasting new order in the Premier League is undoubtedly Rodgers’ dream and the notion that he is in charge of a team of underdogs in what he calls an “iconic” fixture clearly rankles.

“It does,” said Rodgers. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that, on the field, we’ve fallen behind. But it also brings great motivation that enhances my commitment to the cause to show that we’re going to fight to keep moving forward.” For the time being, small steps need to be taken.

The only Liverpool manager not to win any of his first five league games was George Patterson, appointed in March 1928 and who won at the seventh attempt.

Rodgers may be a keen student of the club’s history, but he has no desire to match that particular milestone.

The botched end to the transfer window has placed strain on his relations with owners Fenway Sports Group after just three and a bit months of working together and a landmark success against bitter rivals would be therapeutic.

Defeat could leave Liverpool bottom, though that is not a scenario he is willing to contemplate. “If you are frightened to lose you don’t do enough of what it takes to win a game,” he said.

“I am thinking we win the game and we will be four points behind United, one of the rivals at the top end of the table. That is the only thing in my thinking.

“People get confused and think I only want to sit here and see good football and if we lose...

“Sometimes there is nothing better than when you win a game and you’re not at your best. Sometimes they are the best days, the ****** days as I like to call them.

“A win wouldn’t give breathing space because then you have to win the next game and the one after that. Then you have to answer questions about why aren’t you top. At the big club it is constant.”

If Liverpool are to prevail, then the likelihood is they must do so from the front.

Since beating United 4-1 at Old Trafford in 2009, Liverpool have conceded the first goal in 43 league games, but gone on to win just three, gleaning 15 points out of 129.

The full dismal sequence reads: W 3 D 6 L 34.

Anfield will be awash with emotion tomorrow as tributes are paid to the 96 fans who lost their lives at Hillsborough and also the families, whose painstaking fight for justice was vindicated by the findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel last week.

Focus will also be on Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra, though Rodgers hopes attention will be drawn back to the football.

“We have all grown up with Liverpool versus Manchester United,” he added. “It has been a massive game. I don’t think much changes that.

“It’s two iconic clubs and two sets of passionate supporters. It’s going to be a fantastic game and hopefully, at the end of it all, that is what everyone will be talking about.

“If we can win the game, it will be a great boost for us and hopefully push us on. I think our performance level has been good at times and we just need one good win to kick us off and then we can start to fly.” ‘The parallels are there between Brendan’s task at Anfield and Alex’s arrival at Old Trafford in 1986’